"Oh, we could have been caught up in the middle of a turbulent area of the
Milky Way. As it is we seem to be well located on a very quiet arm out of
most of harm's way except for the occasional comet or asteroid that pummels
us from time to time, remnants of the nova that seeded our solar system with
heavy elements some 5 billion years ago."

Hi,

I remember reading in Astronomy a few years ago that we are in an area of
the galaxy (just portion of the arm we are in) that is particularly rich in
carbon. Its supposed to be sort of unusual. The pocket is like a carbon
oasis in a vast desert. If thats true then we should not expect to see
solar systems elsewhere in the galaxy that have similar situations to ours
(in terms of their ability to support life). So some estimates of the
number of possible civilizations may have been too high.
Bad news for Star Trek fans I guess. :(

Sorry, I've lost that issue of the magazine so I cannot provide a
reference. Yet another reason to put interesting information into a wiki
before one's mother-in-law tosses it out.

Dave C

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Received on Wed Dec 31 23:08:13 2008